Oh look, it's a new year. That must mean it's time for everyone to desperately look back at the twelve months prior to midnight on the 31st December 2010 and try and work out what went right in the world of popular music. And present it in list form.
You'll be thrilled to know, readers, that here at The Pop Web we are nothing if not staunch defenders of tradition. So, without further ado, here are our top 15 musical highlights of 2010 presented here in a very particular order (
contra D. O'Leary).
15. Matt Cardle - When We Collide (video)
OK, OK, we'll admit, this is here mainly so we can gloat about the fact that
we got it absolutely right when it came to who was going to win the X Factor this year.
(If everyone could just forget about the bit where we put the words "Belle Amie" next to "One to Watch" that would be brilliant). The undisputed pop music guru Popjustice has, perhaps justifiably,
railed against Matt's insistence on using the word "credible" to describe both this debut single and the likely direction of his future career. Nonetheless, this was undoubtedly the best X Factor winners' single since
Hallelujah and provided somewhat of a musical highlight in a dismal arse-end-of-the-pop-year.
14. Cee Lo Green - Fuck/Forget You (video)
To be honest, betting on C-Lo Green becoming a force to be reckoned with in pop wasn't exactly running high at the beginning of 2010. But, by mid-summer, Cee Lo managed to give his career a kick up the arse with this gimmicky-yet-utterly-infectious comeback track. Is it about as subtle as a brick to the forehead? Yes. Is it possibly one of the catchiest and likable songs to be released this year? Also, yes. Well done, Cee Lo.
13. Diana Vickers - My Wicked Heart (video)
This is the first song on our countdown to be filed under "should have done better". D Vix had already had a fairly stellar year after hitting the top spot with her
debut single and debut album. But, for our money, it's
My Wicked Heart that best demonstrated Vickers' potential. A track which reminded everyone of just about every song on the planet (including
Under The Bridge and
Creep) and yet still managing to sound unmistakably like a Diana Vicker song, this track had us immediately rescinding some of the more scathing criticisms we levied at her during her X Factor tenure. Sadly, not even a
fairly amazing X Factor performance could offset the song's dismal support from radio and the song ended up landing at a disappointing number 13. So as a tribute to that chart position, we've put her in the same place.
12. Cher Lloyd - Just Be Good To Me (video)
And here's where it gets controversial. Cher Lloyd was undoubtedly one of the most divisive acts on the X Factor this year (Katie Waissel doesn't count. Nobody liked her. Not even us by the end) and, whilst we loved her for the most part, we could accept that her performances were inconsistent at best. She didn't have the best vocals, nor was she the best rapper to have ever graced a stage. Nonetheless, there was something extremely exciting about a performer like Cher on a show like the X Factor. This performance, her first of the live shows, was bursting with attitude and, in and of itself, showed that whatever happened on the show, the X Factor wouldn't be the last the UK would be hearing from Cher Lloyd. It also helped, that even on this first performance, she showed she had more stage presence than the other 15 (?!) acts put together. Except
Diva Fever. And
Wagner.
11. B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams - Airplanes (video)
Sometimes, in pop commentary, it's possible to be too squeamish. And it's squeamishness that sees
Airplanes to the number 11 spot on the top 15 songs of 2010 (in our humble opinion). If we're honest, this slot really belongs to
Eminem and Rihanna for
Love The Way You Lie. But, in all good conscience, we don't feel it's fair to reward Eminem for contributing by far the least memorable part of that song
(you know, the three verses where he demonstrates that he hasn't moved on in the slightest from 2010 and just resorts to being pointlessly offensive to propel himself back to some kind of relevance). So here we are with B.o.B. and the lead singer of Paramore who produced just as memorable a duet with about 300% less needless controversy.
Airplanes, let's not put too fine a point on it, is an excellent song which has even survived relentless overplaying on the part of the nation's radio stations. We docked it a good few places on the basis of the writer's inability to spell aeroplanes correctly, however.
10. Gorillaz featuring Bobby Womack & Mos Def - Stylo (video)
The second track to be placed in the "should have done better" file this year.
Stylo deserved to be the track that catapulted the Gorillaz to the very forefront of the music-buying public's consciousness. Dark and brooding,
Stylo took the magic elements which made
Dare such a huge hit half a decade earlier and then threw in a vocal by Bobby Womack which actually caused him (along with diabetes) to collapse in the studio. That, pop fans, is dedication. If this track passed you by this year, then you definitely owe it to yourself to go back and give it a listen.
9. Lady Gaga & Beyonce - Telephone (video)
everyone's airwaves for the next three months. Nor should it aspire simply to score a number 1 single and perhaps prolong an album's commercial viability. It should aspire to set the tone, and ignite a new cultural discourse. Let's be clear, nothing about
Telephone as a song achieves this. But the video, with its reinvention of squeaky-clean
Beyonce as an accomplice in a serial killing and *that* prison scene made pop a talking point, and an important subject of wider cultural and critical debate.
Telephone, taken as a holistic creative endeavour, carried on the stellar work of
Bad Romance and put pop right back at the centre of the cultural agenda. And while it won't, in all likelihood, have the enduring legacy of
Thriller or
Like A Prayer, it was still one of the most important pop music moments of 2010.
8. Joe McElderry - Ambitions (video)
Say what you want about Joe McElderry's future prospects as a marketable pop star in 2011 and beyond, but you can't say the little guy (and the wider SyCo machine, obviously) didn't give the whole "pop star" thing a good try.
Ambitions was always a risky choice for a first single and the number 6 placing of this song demonstrates that
what works in Norway, doesn't always work in Britain. It was, however, an exceptionally brave release upon which to build Joe's fledgling solo career and even if
Ambitions is the last single Joe gets into the top 20 (or, even the top 40) it will stand as a risk worth taking. We sincerely hope that whatever may happen to Joe over the coming months (i.e. whether or not he gets dropped from SyCo) that he can take comfort that he got to release a genuinely brilliant pop song, which, if the stars had aligned just a little differently, would have laid the foundations for an extremely promising career.
7. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream (video)
Ah, Katy Perry, how do we detest thee? Let us count the ways... Don't get us wrong, next to Ke$ha, Katy is undoubtedly scores a nomination for our "most irritating popstar" award. But, we have to hand it to her,
Teenage Dream is an amazing track which perfectly captures that late-summer/early September "let's hang on to Summer for grim death" fever which sweeps the charts as soon as the nights look like they might even threaten to "draw in".
Max Martin and
Dr Luke once again worked their magic and proved that they have the Midas Touch when it comes to writing amazing pop songs for occasionally-somewhat-grating American female vocalists. Further counting in
Teenage Dream's favour is the
spellbinding version recorded by Darren Criss from the upcoming (at least in the UK) series of
Glee.
6. Hurts - Wonderful Life (video)
In our mind, 2010 will go down as the year when pop realised that, at its best, it could be deep and meaningful and still be absolutely amazing. Hurts are no small part of that realization.
Wonderful Life tells the story of a man about to commit suicide on the Severn Bridge before meeting a woman called Susie who he falls in love with. The dark themes of the song are beautifully reflected in the shimmeringly bleak backing track and mournful backing vocals. The result is a song which, depending on your mood, will have you jumping up and down in joy or crying into the nearest cushion. The track and the band captured the attention of the pop intelligentsia this year, with
Kylie Minogue delivering a fantastic version of the song in the Live Lounge.
5. Kylie Minogue - All The Lovers (video)
And speaking of Kylie,
All The Lovers provided the biggest chart outrage of the year here at The Pop Web when it narrowly missed out on becoming Minogue's 8th UK number 1 single. A euphoric return to form the track saw Kylie deliver the kind of out-and-out disco classic that she has become synonymous with. A tender lyric which builds and builds into the most beautiful, swirling middle eight,
All The Lovers will hopefully go down as one of the all-time great Kylie singles, thanks in no small part to the genius production job by
Stuart Price.
4. Example - Kickstarts (video)
The winner of the
Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize Example provided an unlikely summer highlight in pop which further articulated the Hot Chip principle of "the joy of repetition". Supported by a relentless backing track which, as the video demonstrates, immediately gets toes tapping, the cyclical lyrics build into an insightful and brilliantly-observed lament about "things going stale" in a relationship. It's simply a brilliant, brilliant pop song and therefore Example is well-deserving of the monetary incentive which Popjustice sent his way to create more songs like it.
3. Rihanna - Only Girl (In The World) (video)
After the, let's be honest, hopelessly mediocre
Rated R album, the pressure was on Rihanna to create the kind of ballsy pop which made
Umbrella and pretty-much everything else on
Good Girl Gone Bad a permanent fixture on radio playlists the world over. Talk about putting fears to rest.
Only Girl was an irresistible return to form for Ms. Fenty and helped her recapture the crown of most dancefloor-friendly popstar. With a chorus which practically demands you to jump up and down with at least one fist in the air,
Only Girl is, not to put too fine a point on it, an absolute smash. It also encapsulates that snarling independence which Rihanna puts across so well without descending into self-involved melodrama (see
Russian Roulette).
2. Robyn - Dancing On My Own (video)
We want to preface this with an admission. Despite the fact that this is undoubtedly one of the most amazing songs of the year, we simply aren't capable of singing this track's praises better than Peter Robinson did in
this Guardian article. Suffice to say, however, that
Dancing On My Own proved what everyone in their right mind knew already: Robyn is one of the most talented and emotionally sophisticated popstars of the past decade. Dancing On My Own is a tribute to each and every one of those shit nights when you've ended up staggering home from a club on your own, with the love of your life dancing obliviously with their own partner. It's the type of lyric which, in any other hands, would descend into cliche. In Robyn's hands, however, it turns into a melancholic masterpiece which forces the listener both to dance and to make tears roll down their cheeks. Dancing On My Own is an absolute masterpiece and will set the bar for many years to come for pop songs and artists who want to plumb emotional, as well as hedonistic, depths with their music.
"Standing, on the edge of forever/ At the start of whatever/ Shouting 'love' at the world..."
Thus begins the most important musical moment in pop of the past twelve months. Take That finally reuniting as a five-piece was huge news in itself. Almost too huge. How would the reinclusion of
Robbie Williams, the man with the biggest ego in pop music, affect the most amazing comeback story in recent pop music memory? The re-completed Take That, which had been doing amazingly well under the leadership of
Gary Barlow, and to a lesser extent
Mark Owen, now had to find a place for the man whose solo career outshone them all until it was derailed by
self-indulgent creative decisions and an increasingly slack grip on the cultural zeitgeist.
Barlow and co responded (with the held of Stuart Price, once again) with the epic The Flood. What made this song truly special wasn't just the lyrics which appeared to advance the notion that the Take That re-reunion was an event of cosmic, nay, apocalyptic importance. It wasn't just the sound of all five members delivering an absolutely amazing vocal. It was the fact that this track simply wouldn't have worked in any other hands, or indeed at any other time. It was a track which in its own right carries such gravitas that it would have sounded pompous and over-egged were it not the soundtrack for a story which, a mere three years ago, looked impossible to realize.
The Flood is a song which satisfies all viewpoints. On its own it is a brilliant track with lyrical ideas well and truly above its station. Seen as a continuation of Take That's comeback story it demonstrates Barlow's continually growing confidence as a songwriter and further showcases the amazing chemistry which Gary, Mark, Jason and Howard have when recording and performing together which isn't overshadowed by Williams' return to the band. It even satisfies the slightly snarky criticisms levelled by people like us here at The Pop Web which posit that Robbie Williams is at his best when he is reigned in by the more talented people that surround him. The Flood was absolutely the perfect platform from which to allay everyone's fears about the return of the five-membered Take That.
But most importantly, it is an absolutely phenomenal pop song and that is why we have declared
The Flood to be the best song of 2010. No mean feat in what has been a spellbinding year of music.
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